144 JOURNAL OF THE TRINIDAD 



ment aid, and the good work the Society was doing in popular- 

 izing the study of Natui'al History. 



The lecture was then delivered. It was illustrated by a 

 collection of living snakes, prepared fangs, skins, bottled speci- 

 mens and blackboard diagrams. At its conclusion the usual 

 votes of thanks were cordially passed. The proceeds were 

 devoted to the Mammal Collection. 



IN MEMORIAL. 



THE late Hon. Robert Guppy, M.A., Member of the Legisla- 

 tive Council, died at his residence, Piedmont, San Fernando, 

 on the 11th November, 1894. He was third son of Samuel Guppy, 

 Esq., of Bristol, and Arno's Court, Somersetshire. Mr. Robert 

 Guppy was born in Bristol on 22nd January, 1808. He was 

 educated in Leicester and London and the College of Henry 

 IV., Paris. He entered Pembroke College, Oxford, and graduated 

 B.A. in 1829 and M.A. in 1830; kept terms at the Middle 

 Temple; called to the Bar November, 1832, and went the Oxford 

 Circuit. He travelled in France, Switzerland and Italy. He 

 came to Trinidad in 1839 to retrieve the properties of Messrs. 

 Protheroe and Son, and was for a time connected with the sugar 

 interest. Sir Henry McLeod in 1840 appointed Mr. Guppy a J. P. 

 and Road Commissioner. In 1844 he was sent by instructions of the 

 Colonial Minister to Sierra Leone to enquire into the prospects 

 of obtaining a sufficient supply of labourers from that settlement. 

 His report and advice had a great share in promoting the intro- 

 duction of coolies from India. Upon his return from Africa 

 Mr. Guppy acted as Stipendiary Justice for the Naparimas and 

 Savana Grande, to which the Couva district was afterwards 

 added. This acting appointment continued for fifteen months, 

 at the expiration of which Mr. Guppy was appointed first Town 

 Clerk of San Fernando under the Ordinance, just then passed, 

 constituting a Municipal Corporation in that town. Mr. Guppy 

 was subsequently appointed Warden of the North Naparima 

 Ward Union ; and, having had ample experience of the necessity 

 of better means of communication, with the cordial assistance of 

 Mr. William Eccles, Mr. Richard Darling, Dr. Philip and other 

 local proprietors, he promoted and carried out the Cipero 

 Tramroad (a railway) by which Princestown has become the most 

 prosperous internal town in the island. Mr Guppy was 

 Secretary, General Superintendent and Manager of the con- 

 cern until 1867. In 1862 Mr. Guppy resigned his post as 

 Warden, and resumed his practice as a Barrister. Mr. Guppy 

 introduced the electric telegraph into the island in 1868. He 



